{"id":41890,"date":"2026-06-16T12:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/41890\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T12:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:24:19","slug":"with-fresh-mandate-japans-takaichi-sets-sights-on-divisive-security-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/41890\/","title":{"rendered":"With fresh mandate, Japan\u2019s Takaichi sets sights on divisive security goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flush with political capital, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s election victory earlier this month has empowered her to push ahead with a number of security and defense goals that, just a decade ago, would have been all but unattainable.<\/p>\n

From moving forward by several years updates to Japan\u2019s three key strategic documents to discussions on revising the country\u2019s three non-nuclear principles and even laying the groundwork for amending the pacifist Constitution, the prime minister has in her short stint in office set the stage for tackling both long- and short-term goals.<\/p>\n

But Takaichi, who has said that she is up to the challenge of \u201ctaking on policies that divide the nation,\u201d will still have to tread lightly amid unpredictable elements both at home and abroad that could put a damper on realizing these goals.<\/p>\n

Here is a look at some of the \u201cbold\u201d changes Takaichi has said she is hoping to bring.<\/p>\n

One change could come as early as this spring, as Takaichi\u2019s government aims to scrap a requirement limiting Japan\u2019s military exports to five nonlethal categories.<\/a><\/p>\n

The country has long had some of the world\u2019s strictest restrictions on arms exports. But intensifying geopolitical rivalries, Japan\u2019s growing engagement in international defense-industrial projects and a winning bid to sell warships to Australia have presented Takaichi with a unique opportunity.<\/p>\n

Her ruling Liberal Democratic Party is set to submit a draft proposal to the government calling for abolishing the existing rules and instead classifying defense equipment into two categories: lethal arms such as warships and nonlethal equipment such as radars.<\/p>\n

According to the draft, the decision on whether to export lethal equipment will be examined by the National Security Council, which also includes the prime minister and relevant ministers. The transfer of lethal weapons is expected to be limited to countries having defense equipment and tech transfer deals with Japan.<\/p>\n

The revisions \u2014 which also include changes to allow transfers of jointly developed weapons and systems to third countries \u2014 are designed to both bolster the country\u2019s defense industry and deepen security partnerships with like-minded countries, and will not require parliamentary approval.<\/p>\n

Takaichi and the ruling bloc is also looking to beef up Japan\u2019s intelligence-gathering and analyzing capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will establish a framework to prevent crises before they occur and strategically protect our national interests\u201d by enhancing these capabilities, she told a news conference on Feb. 9, just a day after the LDP\u2019s election triumph.<\/p>\n

As a first step in this endeavor, the government plans to create a National Intelligence Bureau by July, with legislation to be submitted during the regular session of parliament that began Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The new Cabinet-level bureau would upgrade the existing Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flush with political capital, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s election victory earlier this month has empowered her to push…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[701,235,2894,360,1468,234,13,10120,177,179,2909,180,178,358,2303,673,405],"class_list":["post-41890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-2026-lower-house-election","tag-budgets","tag-constitution","tag-defense","tag-defense-ministry","tag-diet","tag-donald-trump","tag-espionage","tag-japans-politics","tag-japanese-politics","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-politics","tag-politics-of-japan","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-sdf","tag-u-s-military","tag-u-s-japan-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}